Gray Man Series in Order

Gray Man Series By Mark Greaney

1. The Gray Man (2009)
2. On Target (2010)
3. Ballistic (2011)
4. Dead Eye (2013)
5. Back Blast (2016)
6. Gunmetal Gray (2017)
7. Agent in Place (2018)
8. Mission Critical (2019)
9. One Minute Out (2020)
10. Relentless (2021)
11. Sierra Six (2022)
12. Burner (2023)

My skill set is not conducive to honest work.

― Mark Greaney, The Gray Man

An Intro to Gray Man – What is the Gray Man Series?

Gray Man series follows Court Gentry, introduced to the world in the debut novel – Gray Man. And just like the title of the first book, and the overall series, you guessed it. Court Gentry is THE Gray Man. And to those who hide in the shadows, he is known as the Gray Man.

We are introduced to Court Gentry as an ex-CIA operative, but when we meet him, an international hired assassin. He is regarded as a legend in the covert realm, who moves silently from job to job. He accomplishes the impossible and then fades away, almosts like he was never there.

With each book, we follow the Gray Man throughout the world. Facing new challenges and mysteries everywhere he goes. There is never a dull moment for him. He is a lone wolf, likes to hide in the shadows and is always hitting his mark – always! But it isn’t long until the target is on him, and to make it through to the other side, he must defeat some equally talented foes.

The Gray Man is an incredible story to follow, and in 2022, Netflix released a film of the same name, starring Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans and Ana de Armas and directed by Anthony and Joe Russo – the directors of Avengers Endgame.

Who is Mark Greaney

Mark Greaney was born in 1967, and did not become a published author until 2009 at the age of 32 with The Gray Man. He attended University of Memphis where he gained his degree in International Relations and Political Science, which would come in handy for his writing career.

With the success that came off his debut novel, he was able to work with one of his idols, an author who he had been reading for many years prior. Tom Clancy, who is most notably the Jack Ryan series (which has an amazon prime series starring John Krasinski). Mark wrote three books with Tom Clancy until his death in October 2013, and four more after; Locked on – with Tom Clancy (2011), Threat Vector – with Tom Clancy (2012), Command Authority – with Tom Clancy (2013), Tom Clancy: Support and Defend (2014), Tom Clancy: Full Force and Effect (2014), Tom Clancy: Commander in Chief (2015), and Tom Clancy: True Faith and Allegiance (2016).

Unlike with many other authors of this genre, spy thrillers, he has no prior military or police training at all. With the level of detail that you would read in his books, the realism that you would experience, you would find it surprising. But how he is able to achieve this level of detail is through his ruthless and exemplary research and training that he does.

You can find on his website a whole section of research that he has carried out for the Gray Man world. You can see that the research and the first hand experience is important to him to be able to write each scenario to the best of his ability. He details the different intelligence, law enforcement and paramilitary organisations that he included in his books from around the world. He shows you images of him traveling around the world to each of the locations he sets his books in.  He also visits the Pentagon! Talk about research getting you into all the places! You can see his first hand experiences of military and firearm training that he goes through to be able to achieve this level of experience, an example image taken from his website can be seen below.

He currently lives in Memphis, Tennessee with his family; his wife, three step-children, and four dogs.

The Order

Below you will find more about each of the books in the  Gray Man series in order. The order we have this in is in publication order, which we feel is the best way to follow this set of books. This is because we feel that, while each book is in essence its own standalone mystery, there is always some character development that carries on throughout.

1. The Gray Man (2009)

104,680 words, 464 pages, 7hrs
Published by Berkley
4.14 out of 5 on Goodreads

To those who lurk in the shadows, he’s known as the Gray Man. He is a legend in the covert realm, moving silently from job to job, accomplishing the impossible and then fading away. And he always hits his target. Always.

But there are forces more lethal than Gentry in the world. Forces like money. And power. And there are men who hold these as the only currency worth fighting for. And in their eyes, Gentry has just outlived his usefulness.

But Court Gentry is going to prove that, for him, there’s no gray area between killing for a living and killing to stay alive….

2. On Target (2010)

117,025 words, 534 pages,7hrs 50mins
Published by Berkley
4.18 out of 5 on Goodreads

Four years ago, Court Gentry was betrayed by his handlers in the CIA. To survive, he had to eliminate his own brothers in arms. Now, as a master assassin known as the Gray Man, he makes his living killing other people. But when an old comrade he thought dead returns to haunt him, his own life is put in the crosshairs.

3. Ballistic (2011)

131,440 words, 496 pages, 8hrs 45mins
Published by Berkley
4.30 out of 5 on Goodreads

After Court Gentry was betrayed by his compatriots and forced to take on a near-suicidal covert mission by the CIA, he thought he could find refuge living in the Amazon rain forest. But his bloody past finds him when a vengeful Russian crime lord forces him to go on the run once again. Court makes his way to one of the only men in the world he can trust—and arrives too late. His friend is dead and buried.

Years before, Eddie Gamboa had saved Court’s life. Now, Eddie has been murdered by the notorious Mexican drug cartel he fought to take down. And Court soon finds himself drawn into a war he never wanted. But in this war, there are no sides—only survivors…

4. Dead Eye (2013)

130,820 words, 479 pages, 8hrs 45mins
Published by Berkley
4.40 out of 5 on Goodreads

Ex-CIA master assassin Court Gentry gets hit with a blast from the past in the fourth Gray Man novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Mark Greaney.

Court Gentry has always prided himself on his ability to disappear at will, to fly below the radar and exist in the shadows—to survive as the near-mythical Gray Man. But when he takes revenge upon a former employer who betrayed him, he exposes himself to something he’s never had to face before: a killer who is just like him.

Code-named Dead Eye, Russell Whitlock is a graduate of the same ultra-secret Autonomous Asset Program that trained and once controlled Gentry. But now, Whitlock is a free agent who has been directed to terminate his fellow student of death. He knows how his target thinks, how he moves, and how he kills. And he knows the best way to do the job is to make Gentry run for his life—right up until the moment Dead Eye finally ends it…

5. Back Blast (2016)

159,500 words, 528 pages, 10hrs 40mins
Published by Berkley
4.53 out of 5 on Goodreads

Five years ago, Court Gentry was the CIA’s best covert asset. Then, without warning, his masters at the Agency put him at the top of their kill list. Court fled his country and became an enigmatic killer for hire known as the Gray Man.

Determined to find out what made the Agency turn against him, he plans to get his hands on the men who sent him on his last mission, Operation BACK BLAST. What he doesn’t realize is that the questions that arose from his time as an American assassin are still reverberating in the U.S. intelligence community, and he’s stumbled onto a secret that powerful people want kept under wraps. 

The result: everyone has Court in their crosshairs…

6. Gunmetal Gray (2017)

147,030 words, 512 pages, 9hrs 50mins
Published by Berkley
4.45 out of 5 on Goodreads

After five years on the run, Court Gentry is back on the inside at the CIA. But when his first mission includes a pair of Chinese agents trying to take him down in Hong Kong, Court wants to know why. 

Court’s high-stakes hunt for answers takes him across Southeast Asia and leads to his old friend, Donald Fitzroy, who is being held hostage by the Chinese. Fitzroy was contracted to find Fan Jiang, a former member of an ultra-secret computer warfare unit responsible for testing China’s own security systems.

The first two kill teams Fitzroy sent to find Fan have disappeared and the Chinese have decided to “supervise” the next operation. What they don’t know is that Gentry’s mission is to find Fan first and get whatever intel he has to the US. 

After that, all he has to do is get out alive…

7. Agent in Place (2018)

148,890 words, 528 pages, 9hrs 55mins
Published by Berkley
4.39 out of 5 on Goodreads

Fresh off his first mission back with the CIA, Court Gentry secures what seems like a cut-and-dried contract job: A group of expats in Paris hires him to kidnap the mistress of Syrian dictator Ahmed Azzam to get intel that could destabilize Azzam’s regime.

Court delivers Bianca Medina to the rebels, but his job doesn’t end there. She soon reveals that she has given birth to a son, the only heir to Azzam’s rule—and a potent threat to the Syrian president’s powerful wife.

Now, to get Bianca’s cooperation, Court must bring her son out of Syria alive. With the clock ticking on Bianca’s life, he goes off the grid in a free-fire zone in the Middle East—and winds up in the right place at the right time to take a shot at bringing one of the most brutal dictatorships on earth to a close. . . .

8. Mission Critical (2019)

148,045 words, 528 pages, 9hrs 50mins
Published by Berkley
4.47 out of 5 on Goodreads

Court Gentry’s flight on a CIA transport plane is interrupted when a security team brings a hooded man aboard. They want to kick Gentry off the flight but are overruled by CIA headquarters. The mystery man is being transported to England where a joint CIA/MI6 team will interrogate him about a mole in Langley.

When they land in an isolated airbase in the U.K., they are attacked by a hostile force who kidnaps the prisoner. Only Gentry escapes. His handlers send him after the attackers, but what can one operative do against a trained team of assassins? A lot, when that operative is the Gray Man.

9. One Minute Out (2020)

147,755 words, 512 pages, 9hrs 50mins
Published by Berkley
4.45 out of 5 on Goodreads

While on a mission to Croatia, Court Gentry uncovers a human trafficking operation. The trail leads from the Balkans all the way back to Hollywood.

Court is determined to shut it down, but his CIA handlers have other plans. The criminal ringleader has actionable intelligence about a potentially devastating terrorist attack on the US. The CIA won’t move until they have that intel. It’s a moral balancing act with the Court at the pivot point.

10. Relentless (2021)

144,610 words, 528 pages, 9hrs 40mins
Published by Berkley
4.50 out of 5 on Goodreads

The first agent’s disappearance was a puzzle.

The second was a mystery.

The third was a conspiracy.

Intelligence operatives around the world are disappearing. When a missing American agent re-appears in Venezuela, Court Gentry, the Gray Man, is dispatched to bring him in, but a team of assassins has other ideas. Court escapes with his life and a vital piece of intelligence.

Meanwhile, CIA agent Zoya Zakharova is in Berlin. Her mission: to infiltrate a private intelligence firm with some alarming connections. The closer she gets to answers, the less likely she is to get out alive.

Court and Zoya are just two pieces on this international chessboard, and they’re about to discover one undeniable truth—sometimes capturing a king requires sacrificing some pawns.

11. Sierra Six (2022)

147,610 words, 528 pages, 9hrs 50mins
Published by Berkley
4.58 out of 5 on Goodreads

It’s been years since the Gray Man’s first mission, but the trouble’s just getting started in the latest entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling series.

Before he was the Gray Man, Court Gentry was Sierra Six, the junior member of a CIA action team.

In their first mission they took out a terrorist leader, at a terrible price. Years have passed. The Gray Man is on a simple mission when he sees a ghost: the long-dead terrorist, but he’s remarkably energetic for a dead man. 

A decade of time hasn’t changed the Gray Man. He isn’t one to leave a job unfinished or a blood debt unpaid.

12. Burner (2023)

150,700 words, 528 pages, 10hrs 5mins
Published by Berkley
4.63 out of 5 on Goodreads

Court Gentry is caught between the Russian mafia and the CIA in this latest electrifying thriller in the #1 New York Times bestselling Gray Man series.

When you kick over a rock, you never know what’s going to crawl out. 

Alex Velesky is about to discover that the hard way. He’s stolen records from the Swiss bank that employs him, thinking that he’ll uncover a criminal conspiracy. But he soon finds that he’s tapped into the mother lode of corruption. Before he knows it, he’s being hunted by everyone from the Russian mafia to the CIA. 

Court Gentry and his erstwhile lover, Zoya Zakharova, find themselves on opposite poles when it comes to Velesky. They both want him but for different reasons. 

That’s a problem for tomorrow. Today they need to keep him and themselves alive. Right now, it’s not looking good.

Overall

Mark Greaney’s built up some great characters in the Gray Man series that never fails to keep you entertained.

If you are a fan of any of Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne series books, or even Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan series (which as you know now, if you did not already, Mark Greaney wrote seven of – three with Tom Clancy himself!) then you will love these books. So if you have not yet begun these books yet, then delay no more!

If you have enjoyed any of Mark Greaney’s work, or are interested to learn more that he has written, or even any upcoming projects that he has upcoming, then feel free to check out his website.

Which one is your favorite or most looking forward to picking up next? 

Let us know!

Happy reading!

 Tally Count

1. Overall word: 1,678,105 words
2. Overall page count: 6,165 pages
3. Overall reading time: 111hrs 55mins

Things to Note:

1. Word count is an approximation.
2. Amount of pages may differ due to different publications, font style and/or size etc.
3. Time spent reading is an approximation based on the word count and the average reading time. The average reader will read 250 WPM (Words Per Minute).
4. This is the original publishers of the books.
5. The Current GoodReads score at time of writing